Saturday, October 15, 2016

Beach Street

What to find on Beach Street in Pattaya

Pattaya is a very popular city in Thailand and is well knows for its entertainment venues. In this section I'll go over Beach Street which is a main road going along the beach in Pattaya where many venues are located. This is likely to be the first street you will get to know and spend a lot of time on to get around the town.

I've included a map on the right which shows where Beach Street is located. To the left of the street is the beach and water. At the top is the main road many vehicles will use to get to your destination if you are coming from Bangkok. At the bottom of the map is Walking Street which is one of the most famous entertainment venues in the world. The main street to the right is Pattaya Saisong, or more commonly known by it's English translation as 2nd street. Most of the people who come to Pattaya will stay between these landmarks, especially first timers. Feel free to click on the map to get a closer look at the main roads as this is the primary route for most transportation while you are staying in Pattaya. One other important note, Beach Street is a one-way street which goes from the Teddy Bear museum at the top to Walking Street at the bottom. Vehicles then head one-way to 2nd street from Walking Street. Once at 2nd Street you are on another one-way street with heads back up. This is a common route which people take all the time.

Baht Bus - A baht bus is a covered truck which goes around in circles along certain routes. One of the most common routes is from the top of Beach Street down to Walking Street, where everyone gets off, and then from the bottom of 2nd Street back up to the top of Beach Street. If you stand by the road the bus will come by and wait for you to get into the back. When you approach your destination there will be a button you can press which will make a ringing or buzzing sound. This let's the driver know that you need to get off. The bus will pull over to the side to let you out. Before you leave you will need to pay 10 baht to the driver for the trip. This is a great way to explore the city for 20 baht, 10 baht one-way and then 10-baht going back the other way. If you watch the video at the bottom you can see a few baht buses being passed.

Side Sois - Between Beach Street and 2nd Street are several side streets (alleys), or sois as they are commonly called. Many of these sois are popular entertainment venues with hundreds of clubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants down them. They start with Soi 1 at the top and continue all the way down Beach Street and through Walking Street until you reach Soi 16. Soi 6 is one of the more popular sois in Pattaya due to the heavy congestion of bars along the road. A person would be hard pressed to take a drink in each bar going from one side of Soi 6 to the other.

I've provided a video below which I shot from a baht bus. This was taken during the day going to Walking Street. The video starts at the top of the road where we are going past the Mantra restaurant until we get all the way down to Baywalk Residence which is just before Walking Street. As you can see the bus will bounce around and it can get pretty noisy at times. Most of the people travel around on mopeds which are clearly visible parked next to the road and down many of the side streets. The further down the bus goes the more congested the city gets. There are a lot of different restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs, shops, hotels, ATMs, money exchange booths, banks, malls, shopping stalls, and a ton of tourists relaxing and having a good time.